Chinese students at University of Adelaide face embassy threats

Chinese students at the University of Adelaide have been threatened with being reported to the Chinese embassy.

It has been alleged that some Chinese students who ran on an International Voice ticket for board positions of the Adelaide University Union threatened and intimidated other students from China who were campaigning for the rival Progress party.

Chinese students at the University of Adelaide have been threatened with being reported to the Chinese embassy in Canberra for allegedly campaigning against communism during student elections.

It has been alleged that some Chinese students who ran on an International Voice ticket for board positions of the Adelaide University Union threatened and intimidated other students from China who were campaigning for the rival Progress party.

Correspondence between frightened international students and the university, obtained by The Australian, details a range of allegations stemming from last month’s elections, and warns of Chinese students “all freaking out and very concerned about the consequences after being seen as ‘anti-communism’ ”.

Social media also highlighted the issue, with the ­Adelaide University Liberal Club posting on its Facebook page of “deep concern … that Chinese students are being threatened and ­intimidated on the basis of participating in free and fair student elections at the University of Adelaide”.

“This conduct is evidence of troubling foreign interference in our universities, as well as a serious breach of academic freedom that has been a cornerstone of Western universities for hundreds of years,” the post said.

A key complaint was that a threatening message was circulated among Chinese students at the university via the messaging platform WeChat.

The message targeted students who were promoting a banner for Progress that said “Jobs not Socialism”. The WeChat message claimed the banner was “openly against socialism and communism” and warned details of this and information of the participators had been reported to the Chinese embassy.

Adelaide University Liberal Club campaigns vice-president Hugh Sutton yesterday said the Chinese Students Association had splintered during the past year. Some members had been aligned with International Voice and others with Progress.

Mr Sutton said there was “threatening and intimidating behaviour” involving students from China during the election campaign. “This goes against practically everything this university stands for,” he said.

Oscar Ong, a Malaysian Chinese aerospace engineering student at the university, yesterday said he was among those who were threatened “openly during campaigning … that they have reported my details to the China embassy”.

“They were saying we are anti-China, that they were from the China embassy so students should vote for them, and also threatening (other) Chinese students,” he said.

Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi said this ­“snitching scandal plays into every fear that we have about Chinese Communist Party influence”.

A University of Adelaide spokesman said the university “does not involve itself in the running of student elections”.

Adelaide University Union returning officer Andrew Klima declined to comment.

The China embassy did not ­respond to a request for comment by deadline.